Product Placement

Product placement place an increasingly important role in the advertisement of consumers goods, including clothing and accessories. Research suggests that audiences tend to have a positive attitude towards product placement when they believe that the practice increases the realism of media content (Lee et al., 2011). Research also indicates that the naturalistic representation of brands reinforces the integrity of factionalised storylines and reflects the 'real life' experiences of the audience in the entertainment media setting (DeLorme and Reid, 1999).

Sex & the City

 Furthermore film and television product placement have been found to enhance brand awareness, attitudes and purchase intent (Russell, 2002). Product placement acts in a more unobtrusive way be evoking the positive association, aspiration, and symbolic meaning connected with the underlying movie content (Roussell, 1998). Consumers connect the film world to their own, mapping the film (DeLorme and Reid, 1999), which in turn influence attitudes and consumption norms (Pechmann and Shih, 1999).

Gossip girl

 

Vintage Mania!!!

Vintage clothes are growing in desirability, and celebrities who aren’t afraid to show off their unique style are always the first to flaunt their vintage finds. Some celebrities collect vintage items, such as Beyonce, who collects vintage Chanel, while other celebrities love to wear vintage because it makes them stand out from the Hollywood pack, such as Chloe Sevigny.

Choe Sevigny

 Way back in 1997 the New York Times did an article about the increasing popularity of vintage couture. The article referenced the fact that Barbra Streisand was known to purchase and perform in womens vintage clothing. In fact, she is credited as being the first celebrity to bring vintage clothing into the spotlight. In 2001 Julia Roberts, wore a vintage dress to the Oscars. Since then there has been a massive increase in interest for vintage clothes.

Julia Roberts Oscar 2001-Vintage Valentino

Womens vintage clothing is so much more than just used clothes. It’s clothing that had style back in its time and which continues to have style today even though the era when it was originally made is long gone. And don't forget that, there’s no easier way to go green than by buying vintage clothing.

The Little Black Jacket

The famous Little Black Jacket created in  the 1950s by the Gabrielle ''Coco'' Chanel, the iconic style has been reinvented by the creative director Karl Lagerfeld season after season and is the subject of the upcoming book, "The Little Black Jacket: Chanel's Classic Revisited" which has been panned by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld.
 

Sara Jessica Parker

For the project the designer gathered more than a hundred celebrities and all wore the Little Black Jacket their own way.  ''The Chanel jacket has became the symbol of a certain elegance, feminine, with an air of nonchalance, classic and timeless, that is of all times'' said Karl Lagerfeld in Paris after the photo shoot of the book The Little Black Dress. The book will accompany the opening of an exhibition dedicated to it in Tokio.

"Chanel et Japon," a sketch by designer Karl Lagerfeld

Chanel for one more time uses its heritage and history in order to maintain brand equity and thus mean brand awareness and positive brand image. Chanel consider as a heritage brand because it has chosen to emphasize its history as a key component of its brand identity and positioning. The reason companies with heritage should use it is to take advantage of differentiation that is valuable for customer/consumer and other stakeholders, distinctive the brand, and difficult to imitate for the competitors (Urde, et al., 2007). Hence the brand association with the Coco Chanel and its heritage is an important point of difference from its competitor and a strong, favorable and unique association in the mind of consumers (Keller, et al., 2012).

Source: Chanel News

A royal ambassador for Gucci

Charlotte Casiraghi is the new face of Gucci for the ''Forever Now'' advertising campaign. The iconic brand selects one more time a celebrity in order to promote its new campaign. In addition to this celebrity endorsement has became a popular approach in the branding process both in terms of gaining and keeping attention and in creative favorable associations leading to positive brand knowledge and distinct brand image (Carroll, 2008). But why Gucci chose Charlotte as the new ambassador?

 She is a renowned fashionista, she is fourth in line the throne of Monaco. And what more can epitomize a designer household name to royalty than royalty herself. Furthermore Gucci's creative director, Frida Giannini has been exclusively designing Charlotte's riding gear for the past couple of years, as Charlotte races horses at the competition level. Moreover Charlotte will take part in the Olympic games this summer in London. Do you think that is a coincidence that the campaign started the same year with the Olympics?

And don't forget that the 25 years old royal is the granddaughter to Hollywood  icon actress Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco) and daughter to Princess Carolina of Monaco. According to Ohanian (1991) stresses that be truly effective, celebrities chosen as endorsers should be knowledgeable, experienced and qualified in order to perceived as an expert in the category.
So is Charlotte the right ambassador for the Italian house?

Celebrities on street style

It would seem sometimes that z-list celebrities are virtually there to be mannequins for the fashion industry. When you see them in magazines and fashion blogs, and all you're told about is what they're wearing and not what they're doing, you do begin to wonder, don't you? Are we really meant to be in awe of such people, or they are reported about for other reasons? Why are we always told about what they are wearing? When you stop to think about it, more questions are raised.

Alexa Chung-Claudia Schiffer-Gwyneth Paltrow

 But does Celebrity fashion really influence what people wear in the high street? To a certain extent I think it does. Not only celebrity endorsers which defined from McCraken (1989) as '' any individual who enjoys public recognition and uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it an advertisement'' (p.310)  have great influence on consumers buying behavior, but also implicit endorsement (I use this brand) and co-present endorsement (I merely appear with the brand)  (Miller and Allen, 2011) have a certain amount of influence on fashion.

Sarah Jessica Parket-Jessica Alba-Ashley Simpson

 
More and more examples of implicit and co-present endorsements can be seen in today's media...don't you think that a lot of consumers try to imitate them?